feels almost eerie in how well it reads me. My Discover Weekly has introduced me to more new artists than any friend ever has. When Spotify’s recommendations are good, I stay longer, queue more, and fall into those 2-hour listening rabbit holes. That extra listening time is their win—more streams, more retention, more subscription value. You can practically see the ROI every time I forget I even meant to switch apps.
LinkedIn’s personalization hits differently. It’s not emotional. It’s opportunistic. The more the feed shows me relevant posts or job shifts, the more I check back. I’ve noticed that when my feed feels “on,” I open LinkedIn multiple times a day without thinking. That frequency boosts their ads and recruiter revenue, which is basically the product of me feeling like I might miss something important.
TikTok, though, is personalization on crazy. I can feel the For You Page calibrating itself within minutes. And because it keeps me watching, the ad system gets freakishly accurate. I’ve bought things I swear I wasn’t even looking for. The ROI here is direct: better targeting equals higher-performing ads equals more spend.
